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Background

In October 2014, Warner Bros. scheduled The LEGO Batman Movie, a spin-off starring Batman for 2017, which moved The LEGO Movie Sequel to 2018[1][2]. Will Arnett is set to return to voice Batman, while Chris McKay, who was earlier attached to the sequel, will direct the film which is being written by Seth Grahame-Smith and produced by Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Phil Lord and Chris Miller [3]. On April 20, 2015, Warner Bros. scheduled The LEGO Batman Movie, for a February 10, 2017 release date[4] and The LEGO Movie 2 for a 2018 release. On October 25, 2014, it was reported that Phil Lord and Chris Miller had signed to write The LEGO Movie sequel.[5] In July 2015, Arnett's Arrested Development co-star Michael Cera was cast to voice Robin[6]. In August 2015, Zach Galifianakis entered final negotiations to voice the Joker [7]. In October 2015, Rosario Dawson was cast to voice Barbara Gordon, the daughter of police commissioner James Gordon who later becomes the crime-fighting heroine Batgirl [8]. The following month, Ralph Fiennes was cast as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler [9]. Mariah Carey, although initial reports indicated she was playing Commissioner Gordon [10], was actually cast as the as-yet-unnamed Mayor of Gotham City[11].

Plot

In the irreverent spirit of fun that made “The LEGO® Movie” a worldwide phenomenon, the self-described leading man of that ensemble – LEGO Batman – stars in his own big-screen adventure: “The LEGO® Batman Movie.” But there are big changes brewing in Gotham and if he wants to save the city from The Joker’s hostile takeover, Batman may have to drop the lone vigilante thing, try to work with others and maybe, just maybe, learn to lighten up. [12]

Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

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Three years after saving the LEGO Multiverse with Emmet and Wyldstyle, Batman continues fighting crime in Gotham City. During a mission to prevent The Joker from destroying the city, Batman hurts his arch-rival's feelings by telling him he is not as important in his life as he thinks he is, leading to the Joker to desire seeking the ultimate revenge on him. The following day, Batman attends the city's winter gala as his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, to celebrate the retirement of Commissioner Gordon and the ascension of his daughter Barbara as Gotham's new police commissioner, but is infuriated when she announces her plans to restructure the city's police to function without the need of Batman. The Joker crashes the party with the rest of Gotham City's villains, but has all of them surrender to the police. Despite realizing that this makes him no longer relevant to the city's safety, Batman suspects his arch-rival is up to something and decides to stop him by banishing him into the Phantom Zone, a prison for some of the most dangerous villains in the Lego Worlds.

Before he can make plans to acquire the Phantom Zone Projector that Superman uses, Alfred intervenes and advises him to take charge of Dick Grayson, whom Bruce had unwittingly adopted as his ward during the gala. Batman eventually agrees and fosters Dick as Robin. The pair manage to recover the Projector from the Fortress of Solitude, before breaking into Arkham Asylum and using it on the Joker. Annoyed at his reckless actions and suspecting that the Joker wanted this to happen, Barbara locks up Batman and Robin. While the Projector is being seized as evidence, Harley Quinn steals it back and uses it to free the Joker, who unleashes the villains trapped within the Phantom Zone to cause havoc upon Gotham, including Lord Voldemort, King Kong, Sauron's Eye of Sauron form, the Wicked Witch of the West, Medusa, the Daleks, Agent Smith, and others.

Realizing that the city does still need him, Barbara releases Batman and Robin and reluctantly teams up with them as "Batgirl" to stop the Joker, with the team joined by Alfred. Batman soon finds himself able to trust and rely on the others, allowing them to defeat Sauron, but upon reaching Wayne Island, he ditches the team out of fear of losing them like his parents, before confronting Joker alone. Upon seeing that the Batman will never change, Joker zaps him to the Phantom Zone, before stealing the Batcave's stash of confiscated bombs and heading for the city's Energy Facility. Arriving in the Phantom Zone, Batman witnesses the harm he has caused to everyone because of his selfishness and slowly realizes his greatest fear when Robin, Barbara and Alfred decide to come to his aid. Making a deal with the Phantom Zone's gatekeeper, Phyllis, to bring back all the villains in exchange for returning to Gotham City, Batman arrives to save the trio and admits to them his mistakes, requesting their help to save the day.

Seeking to stop Joker from setting off the bombs beneath the Energy Facility, thus causing the plates beneath Gotham to come apart and send the city into the infinite abyss, Batman and his allies team up with the city's regular list of villains, after they had felt neglected by Joker, with the group successfully sending back the escaped villains to the Phantom Zone. However, Batman fails to reach the bombs in time, the detonation causing the city to split apart. Realizing how to stop the city from being destroyed, Batman reluctantly convinces Joker that he is the reason for being the hero he is, and working together alongside Batman's friends, the villains, and the city's inhabitants, chain link themselves together, reconnecting the city's plates and saving Gotham City.

With the city saved, Batman prepares to be taken back into the Phantom Zone to fulfill his bargain with Phyllis, only to be rejected by the gatekeeper who chooses to let him remain after she saw how much he had changed in order to save everyone. Batman allows the Joker and the rest of his rogues gallery to escape with the confidence that whenever they return, then they'll be no match for the combined team of himself, Robin, Batgirl, and Alfred.

There's also a Emmet cameo at the beginning of the movie when the citizens of Gotham see in the news what happen if Gotham gets separated and if they fall in the infinitive dark hole. There's is the scene when Emmet falls to sacrifice everyone else in the Octan Tower.

DVD and Blu Ray Release

The LEGO Batman Movie DVD was released on June 13, 2017. The film can be bought in a one DVD set, a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc version, A Blu-Ray disc version, a Target exclusive version, a Best Buy exclusive, or a Walmart exclusive. The Target exclusive features a Batgirl Minifigure and three collectible postcards.

Special Features

Blu-ray

Animated Shorts: A "play all" function is included.

Dark Hoser: Is Batman Canadian?

Batman Is Just Not That Into You: Harley Quinn's interview show on Arkham CCTV.

Cooking with Alfred: The secret history of the Batmonkey. Alfred isn't voiced by Ralph Fiennes but by an unidentified actor who is clearly trying to channel Michael Caine.

Movie Sound Effects: How Do They Do That?: Bane, Riddler, Poison Ivy and Catwoman take turns at making laser sounds but are upstaged by a surprise arrival.

Deleted Scenes: These scenes were never completed and, in some instances, never progressed beyond animated drawings. A "play all" function is included.

Batcave Studio

Lollipop

Batman & Mayor Swap

The Energy Core

Featurettes

One Brick at a Time: Making the Lego Batman Movie: A short but comprehensive overview of the animation process, with interviews sampled from at least as many crew members as the commentary listed below.

Rebrick Contest Winners: Three short LEGO Batman stop-motion mini-movies created by fans and introduced by Will Arnett.

Inside Wayne Manor: Batman/Bruce Wayne leads the tour, which includes a visit to the kitchen and a lobster thermidor snack.

Brick by Brick: Making of the LEGO Batman: This "making of" focuses on the voice cast.

Behind the Brick: The characters introduce themselves and describe the film, which, if you believe each speaker, is centered on the character played by whoever happens to be describing it.

Me and My Mini Fig: The cast reacts to their action figures.

Theatrical Trailers and Promotional Material

Trailer 1 - with Will Arnett Intro

Trailer 2

Trailer 3

LEGO Life Trailer

Follow Me Online

Don't Skip

Happy Holidays Jingle

Batsby New Year's

Team Cutdown

Comic-Con Panel

Director and Crew Documentary: At the outset, director Chris McKay explains that he's in a room with at least 23 people, and as this group commentary proceeds, he proves to be an effective moderator as different speakers take turns elaborating on various elements of LEGO Batman's complex development. Speakers do not always identify themselves, and some are introduced only by first names (or nicknames), which makes it impossible to compile a definitive list. As best as I can determine, the group includes editor David Burrows; assistant editor Nicole Thorn; production designer Grant Freckelton; lighting director Craig Welsh; layout artist Gareth Young; stereoscopic supervisor Fabian Mueller; associate producer Samantha Nisenboim; co-producer Amber Naismith; and animation supervisor Magali Rigaudias. One gets the sense that this same group could have easily recorded multiple commentaries without ever running out of material. What the commentary most forcefully conveys is the immensity of the collaborative effort required to plan, execute and, when necessary, backtrack and revise a project as painstakingly technical as LEGO Batman.

DVD

Animated Shorts: A "play all" function is included.

Dark Hoser: Is Batman Canadian?

Batman Is Just Not That Into You: Harley Quinn's interview show on Arkham CCTV.

Cooking with Alfred: The secret history of the Batmonkey. Alfred isn't voiced by Ralph Fiennes but by an unidentified actor who is clearly trying to channel Michael Caine.

Movie Sound Effects: How Do They Do That?: Bane, Riddler, Poison Ivy and Catwoman take turns at making laser sounds but are upstaged by a surprise arrival.

Deleted Scenes: These scenes were never completed and, in some instances, never progressed beyond animated drawings. A "play all" function is included.

Batcave Studio

Lollipop

Batman & Mayor Swap

The Energy Core

Featurettes

One Brick at a Time: Making the Lego Batman Movie: A short but comprehensive overview of the animation process, with interviews sampled from at least as many crew members as the commentary listed below.

Rebrick Contest Winners: Three short LEGO Batman stop-motion mini-movies created by fans and introduced by Will Arnett.

Inside Wayne Manor: Batman/Bruce Wayne leads the tour, which includes a visit to the kitchen and a lobster thermidor snack.

Brick by Brick: Making of the LEGO Batman: This "making of" focuses on the voice cast.

Behind the Brick: The characters introduce themselves and describe the film, which, if you believe each speaker, is centered on the character played by whoever happens to be describing it.

The Gremlins from the 1984 film Gremlins make a brief cameo in the fourth trailer attacking the BatPlane.

The Wicked Witch of the West and several Flying Monkeys from The Wizard of Oz have been confirmed to make a cameo in the film alongside the Gremlins via a BatPlane set. The Daleks from Doctor Who will also make an appearance in the film, as shown on a recent TV Spot for the film. King Kong later appears in the extended TV Spot for the film assisting Joker in breaking into the BatCave. Voldemort from "Harry Potter", Agent Smith and his clones from "The Matrix", the T-Rex and Velociraptors from "Jurassic Park", General Zod from "Superman", and Stripe from "Gremlins" are later spotted in "Behind the Bricks", and a few commercials for the film alongside Joker.

The movie will feature several all-new pieces and accessories: Batman uses a new utility belt piece placed in between his torso and legs, instead of having it printed on his torso; Robin has his glasses attached to his hairpiece; Alfred has a wearable shirt collar piece on his neck; and many villains, allies, and civilians feature new printings and hairpieces.

In the official trailer, Robin's solution to his outfit's pants problem by removing them is a nod to his original design.

Batman wielding the Jade Blades is a reference to the Ninjago TV series, which they were used in the fourth season. The billboard in Gotham's streets describing 'Ninjagotown' is also not only a nod to Chinatown but also an Easter egg for the Ninjago movie.

In the Comi-Con Trailer towards the end, a billboard is spotted next to Ninjagotown, which states 'Lazlo's' and it shows a man with a pig mask. That is a reference to Batman villain, Lazlo Valentin/Professor Pyg, and it might be an implication that he might appear in the film. There is also a truck in the villains' clip that states "Lazlo's Slaughterhouse", which is also another reference to Valentin himself.

In the same clip, there is a truck that says "Falcone's", which is a reference to Batman villain and mob boss, Carmine Falcone.

Unlike most of his other counterparts, this movie's Joker has pointed teeth.

Throughout the film, Batman's cowl has more expression than just the eye prints.

Vicki Vale and Jor-El make brief cameos in the film. The Kraken and Medusa from Clash of the Titans, and the skeleton army from Jason and the Argonauts appear briefly in the Phantom Zone and in Gotham City causing a rampage. The Swamp Creature from LEGO Monster Fighters also appears alongside other villains, despite being good in The LEGO Movie. Lord Vampyre and The Mummy also appear alongside the Swamp Creature in assisting the Joker in his plot to victimize Gotham City.

The Penny Plunderer's coin, the animatronic T-rex from Batman on Dinosaur Island, and the Mad Hatter's hat are briefly spotted in the Batcave.

Billy-Dee Williams reprised his role as Harvey Dent from the 1989 Tim Burton Batman. In that film, Williams' character had not yet undergone the attack which renders him into Two-Face. Early treatments of the Batman Returns featured Williams playing Dent, transforming into Two-Face at the end to be the villain for a third film. Williams was not cast in the second film and new director Joel Schumacher recast the character with Tommy Lee Jones.

Judging by the archive footage of Emmet falling into the abyss, this film takes place after the events of The LEGO Movie.

When Sauron uses his eye to scan for Batman's home location and says "Scanning noise", the captions mistakenly say "Scary noise."

Notes

Like The LEGO Movie, the film uses CGI animated bricks to look like a stop-motion film.

Unlike The Lego Movie, this film does not strictly adhere to the physical limitations of actual LEGO pieces. This is readily apparent in the trailers, where Batman's cowl can be seen contorting to match his underlying face, and he sends Alfred flying with a side kick.